video for your media. are. signs of hope after days of violence there appears to be an offer to end the fighting between israel and gaza we'll take a look at efforts to broker a cease fire and how u.s. policy is playing a role in ending the conflict. and those anti islam ads are expanding here in the u.s. they've been popping up on subway stations for weeks and now they're being placed on buses around the country we ask are these ads free speech or hate speech. reaching out to family and friends but at what costs the f.c.c. is looking at hard how much prisoners are being charged to use telephones are they

being ripped off because they're locked up r t looked into the issue in just a moment. it's tuesday november twentieth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching are to. begin this hour with the deadly crisis in the middle east talks of a cease fire today after one of the bloodiest days of the conflict in gaza over one hundred people are reported dead in gaza three people in israel have been killed israel defense forces continued airstrikes overnight while dozens of rockets were reportedly fired from gaza into israel today u.n. secretary ban ki-moon called for a cease fire in gaza saying a ground operation there must be avoided. why i reckon it's a maybe a military targets inside gaza. and enjoys to be damage

to civilian infrastructure. is only acceptable under any circumstances the excessive use of force is only can and must be rejected. meanwhile the u.s. is sending warships near israel on border two thousand five hundred marines u.s. officials say they will be on standby in case americans need to be a vacuum waited from israel now the officials say the ships are not meant to serve any combat role but the decision to send the ships signals a growing concern over just where the conflict is headed for more i spoke with r.t. international correspondent paula slayer i first asked her if talk of talks about a cease fire has been any comfort for the people there well it's it means comfort because it is a sign on the horizon that what we've witnessed for the past seven days is coming to an end but it certainly doesn't mean that it's a long term solution we are hearing conflicting reports on the one hand hamas is

saying that a cease fire has been agreed to and goes into effect from midnight local time tuesday but we're not hearing the same kind of statements being made by the israeli government they are calling for some kind of twenty four hour. delayed period where they are calling for some kind of twenty four hour period by which the situation can be assessed and they can determine whether or not a mass is in fact serious about implementing this kind of truce the egyptian president mohamed morsi has stated that he does expect the israelis to stop their operation by the end of tuesday so the signs of there the words are being said a cease fire is about to be implemented if indeed it has not already been and we just haven't been notified about it but you need to remember that we're talking about sworn enemies i mean a mass has on its charter the call for the destruction of the jewish state is welcomed sort of a massive terrorist organization and none of that changes despite the fact that a ceasefire is in effect meanwhile secretary of state hillary clinton is on route

to the middle east is there a feeling that this visit will really help resolve the conflict. it's not necessarily that people here feel that the u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton's visit will help resolve the conflict but so see she will be the final impetus for this resolution for a cease fire taking place she will be meeting with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu in jerusalem she'll they meet with the palestinian president mahmoud abbas in ramallah she will not be meeting with him us because the u.s. does also regard her muscles a target for when i was asian and this has evoked a whole lot of chris's criticism particularly in the social media where i've been monitoring with people saying well how many can the u.s. be involved in this conflict if they refuse to a recognize and be meet with one of the parties but so see we might be witnessing from the israeli side a holding back in terms of saying yes we've agreed to this new science until hillary clinton is in fact in the region she might actually be the glue that brings this all together but again just to make the point that the u.s.

is by no means regarded as a completely neutral broker the sentiment in the region certainly is that the u.s. is backing israel president obama from the start said that he did understand the israeli position and that it was justified in terms of needing to defend its borders which did not obviously go down well with him us so you have the you with always being perceived and perhaps rightly so too has israel on its side well certainly everybody that's been experience experiencing violence the past few days and is hoping for peace the u.n. is also seeking this peaceful resolution secretary-general ban ki moon is discouraging a ground war in gaza meanwhile thousands of u.s. marines are heading to the region paula what kind of message is that sending. well the message is and no one is neutral when it comes to any kind of involvement particularly in the middle east i mean you have the egyptians who are the mediator but certainly they have a very delicate line to to balance and to solve on the one hand representing the

growing cause of the egyptian people which is essentially a sympathy and a brotherhood with hamas and on the other hand not annoying the united states which supplies so much funding to cairo on an annual basis the fact that you have for example the united states involved in this again not a neutral broke a very much seen as supporting israel always putting israel's interests first you have the united nations you mentioned bank you moon he has been holding talks in cairo and he is now here in his role as well the united states to the united states is not necessarily viewed positively by either the israelis or palestinians the israelis a voice felt that the u.n. takes the palestinian side and the palestinians will they side feel that the u.n. could do more so depending on who you're talking about these of the the player in the international community it comes with all the baggage and it's perceived in that context the fact that now you have these marines coming to the region again only for them in trenches the perception particularly amongst our the palestinians

that the u.s. is involved for self interests that the u.s. friendship with as well is possibly a self-interest of friendship and so what you're international brokers are doing is at the end of the day motivated by self-interest ok and there are certainly times have changed you have mentioned egypt and right now there is this new egyptian leadership with a closer relationship to hamas than under president hosni mubarak how is that affecting egypt's role as a mediator or a role egypt has played in the past. well there's been a lot of the special about this here in the region i mean you need to realize that the egyptian president mohamed morsi was unable to say the word israel up until a few days ago and it actually slipped off his tongue whether it was a mistake or whether it was a test of acknowledgement of israel is something that has stood the israeli public opinion and you can see a lot of that in the commentary pages of various newspapers egypt has come to the fore it is certainly playing

a central role and this has always been the intention of the egyptian leadership was to put themselves back on the map we would have seen a very different type of mediation happening if it was the former egyptian president hosni mubarak so me it's well known that he was on the side of israel he did not carry the same kind of support and he wouldn't have gone that extra mile with her months to try and broker some kind of ceasefire or perhaps try and implement what we how witnessing now home from the egyptian government but having said that morsi comes from the muslim brotherhood which is and is in the midst party and he is under criticism for in fact having any kind of interaction with the israelis for trying to pacify the militants in gaza he is increasingly interesting enough being seen as almost a more moderate voice than he was before this conflict began so it's very interesting development just just watching how the egyptian leadership and particularly that of the muslim brotherhood has evolved as indeed it has had to

since it's come to government a very delicate situation over there in the middle east policy thank you that was our team international correspondent policy here. well up a now an update now excuse me to a story we covered yesterday on cyber security after filing a freedom of information act request seeking public release of presidential policy directive twenty attorneys at the electronic privacy information center have been denied the request that are active in question outlines a vague language on how to deal with cyber security in particular cyber attacks epic argue that the directive would expand the reach of the national security agency and could possibly create the opportunity for military action in response to cyber to a cyber attack so what does this mean for your online privacy arcee correspondent our producer adriano sara takes a look at why everyone should be keeping tabs on the cyber security debate r.t.t. has been covering the cyber security beat for

a year as more of our lives become wrapped up in the digital sphere while some of the language in new legislation and executive directives is jargony behind the legally this is a structure that can give and take away privacy for the sake of security here's what's at stake as the general petraeus scandal made resoundingly clear our personal e-mail correspondence even the ones we don't send are being saved and can be accessed by the government and the private companies they contract however email is not the only form of communication that's being tapped under current laws phone calls can already be listened to however electronic communications be a popular programs like skype for instance have factor access to lots of information containing you guessed it chats and other personal communications in other words you might have to think twice about sending that chat. now onto the field of medicine where information that used to be private may not be anymore the establishment of al tronic medical records is

a major part of the healthcare reform and the obama administration set aside nine hundred billion dollars in stimulus money for electronic records so doctors know patients come for a comprehensive medical history however those physicians notes can be accessed by doctors and other health care providers sometimes thousands of which share the same system it also opens up these private records to vulnerability from hackers and banks they're replacing tellers without a maid machines and online banking apps which certainly make things more convenient for consumers it also however it leaves your banking information passwords and account numbers easily open to scanning the a smartphone and bank servers identifying the device used to access the information able to glean other facts about the user like where they are located without a change to privacy law banks can sell this information as a secondary revenue stream now into voting one of the many issues during this past election cycle was the idea of voter fraud slash manipulation voting machines have

long been called hackable on election day we saw some regularity stemming from votes being allegedly altered add to that the fact that many observers claim the current crop of technology is in need of serious oversight and should make many wonder that the policy possibility of throwing an election might not be too far from reality mass transit the information technology infrastructure that i'm able transportation systems is comprised of information and transit networks that control navigation traffic signalling systems traction power systems and traveler information and fare collection systems all of which are vulnerable to affordable cyber attack plus newly manufactured automobiles are made with computers in them which web advocates have sun are easily hacked. parts of our critical infrastructure from electric grids to water pumps and filtration systems nuclear plants and cellular all depend on computers to function general keith b.

alexander the top american military off a fishbowl regarding cyber attacks said computer attacks on american infrastructure increased seventeen fold between two thousand and nine and twenty eleven of course the united states has been on the other side of this one to helping to engineer computer viruses flame and that's known to target iranian organizations and infrastructure and just as we communicate on an individual basis with help from email governments and corporations even secure e-mail systems to stay in contact but with techniques like spearfishing these email servers can be breached and look no further than bradley manning at the state department for an example of a whistleblower opening up a slew of communications to the public at this point physical trading places like the new york stock exchange are more symbolic than necessary to global finance instead of high frequency trading use of computer algorithms and technological tools instead of runners on an exchange for of course tying the global finance

system to computers means that it's just another part of our world affected by cyber security. and where to turn to for information about the world more and more people go to the world wide web even if you don't news organizations use web content management systems to plug in and share their stories plus governments large and small connect with constituents the official web sites which can be easily taken down in distributed denial of service attacks. and last but not least the surveillance state big data is here to stay and the ability to store and compress huge amounts of information is getting easier databases are already finding patterns giving individuals a digital footprint between security cameras more and more places and cell phone location information there won't be many blanks to fill it and the expectation of privacy we have or at least our parents had will be lost in washington i'm. aarti. another controversial ad campaign is hitting the u.s. cities they cause outrage in new york city and washington d.c.

but now they've been slapped on buses in chicago and denver where the ads that are being called racist and divisive the first one reads nine thousand two hundred seven deadly islamic attacks and sign eleven and counting it's not islamophobia it's islam a real listen there's also another ad like the one we saw in d.c. and new york is said in any war between the civilized man and the savage support the civilized man support israel defeat jihad now the ads are sponsored by pamela geller is american freedom defense initiative so is this ad campaign dividing communities or is it perfectly fair free speech to discuss this and more i was joined by. co-founder of exit existence is resistance i began by asking his thoughts on the ads calling their campaign islam a realisable. i think that's for trying to justify these races as again it is i consider them islamophobia extremely racist divisive trying to instigate hatred

of muslim americans and muslims around the world and it's really disturbing that they're back up again you know she may have a right to free speech and the put them up but we have to acknowledge that it's hate speech now do you think that the ads target extremists because that's what pamela gallagher has sad. interviews in the past or do you think they target muslims as a whole i think they're targeting muslims as a whole agent arabs and. may even look like they're from the middle east who aren't because racists. start hitting on a group of people that is going to target you based on your how you look just i did that with the sikh community that was shot by this ariss pages when the shot of the sikh temple so i don't believe that these are targeting extremists at all i believe they're targeting muslim americans are americans palestinians or lebanese south asians pakistanis people of different backgrounds who practice islam so.

that there are reports of an islamic ad campaign now with that in the works isn't titled my jihad. and you know it says these ads one of them there said defeat jihad . what does that mean to you i know the literal translation means struggle what does that mean to you to me personally and to many people i know to jihad means working hard waking up to your your family paying your bills going to school going to work being a good neighbor treating people respect being loving and that's what that's what jihad means to me you know they're force for a couple of reasons the first reason is to try to say that you must if you don't support israel you are savage but as we see what's going on now in gaza it's what it's what israel is doing a savagery against people in gaza the palestinians not. being against israel if you're against israeli policies you should be because they are killing people as we speak right now in this interview people are dying in gaza there's nothing

civilized about bombing homes and hospitals and schools and occupying the whole people she's trying to tell us that it's civilized to support apartheid against palestinians that's what these ads are basically about to justify is really colonialism against the palestinian people and we want to say that that's wrong that that savagery what's going on against palestinians and i know that on the flip side what they are going to say that it's also savagery to be hurling rockets into israel it's really on comparable you know i mean just looking at the death toll the palestinians are very over a hundred fifteen have been killed a large amount of children civilians are majority the victims israel has barely anybody has barely been killed by these rockets it's really kind of a joke to try to compare the both israel is the one committing the savage crimes against the palestinians even former president jimmy carter said israel doesn't want peace they just want to continue continual war a lot of you know rockets have been intercepted so i think it's fair to say that the technology in israel is far more advanced. definitely the technology is far

more advanced and israel is the one instigated all of this in the first place not the palestinians not the rockets from hamas israel's but continuing to build settlements continuing to occupy palestinian land continuing to kill people every day when they hear it on the media but every day somebody is killed shot jailed young kids in jail so you know the media tries to portray it as it all started with hamas rockets that's totally false it did not start with that it started with israel being the aggressor continuing its policy of apartheid and colonialism against the palestinian people and that has to end for there to be any real settlement an end to the violence israel has to be put in its place and told by the un and the united states to stop the occupation stop killing people stop firing missiles because nothing civilize about that at all ok since nine eleven it appears that our we've seen a lot more reports. of hate crimes and would you say that these ads feed into islamophobia islamophobia as well must all be a excuse me and as

a member of the muslim community. what's your take on that. the reason i'm against you know i believe in freedom of speech but i'm going to say these are hate speech just the n.y.p.d. today along with the f.b.i. i just mentioned that they're getting they're getting together with the hate crime task force to investigate a possible serial killer in brooklyn murdering middle eastern shop owners three middle eastern shop owners have been shot to death in brooklyn one a flap a shove a new one in bensonhurst and one in bay ridge that this is a guy who's targeting middle eastern shaab want to see goes in during the evening and start shooting them now the n.y.p.d. saying they believe it's a hate crime that he's a serial killer intentionally targeting people based on earth in a city just last week the men were stabbed another man in front of a mosque in queens and hurled some and so islamic hate speech towards him so i believe there has been an increase in hate crimes against the muslim community the arab community the south asian community after nine eleven but also with these ads now i believe these are instigating exactly what we're talking about hate crimes

and violence against american citizens who just happen to be muslim or look like they're from another country different than what these people want them to be and that's unfortunate and that's why these are dangerous here in d.c. and in. new york they tried to prevent these ads from going up but it was ruled as we had mentioned that it's free speech what do you think do you think that these kinds of ads that some find very offensive and divisive should not be allowed to be put up. you know that's a debate that's going to go on for a long time i want to say clearly that i believe it is hate speech but you know the a speech do people have a right to promote hate speech maybe they do maybe there is a space for you to go or hide under free speech but let us be clear that this free speech is hateful is racist promoting violence and that we have to be clear about that because i don't believe that the double standard there was the opposite of you know muslims putting up anti jewish ads i don't believe will be tolerated as much

as a point i want to make that there might be freedom of speech but what is tolerate and what is not it seems like if you're targeting one group of people they'll justify it under free speech but if you target another group of people they'll say no this is anti-semitic this is racist this is not allowed this is unacceptable in our civilized society i just want to say the same when it comes to hatred against all people not just against one group of people it should be that if there is hatred against anybody we should speak out against it and say that you know just like there has been ads that are countering these ads one by rabbis of know for human rights and the other by a christian group called sojourners they've been putting up these ads saying i love my muslim neighbors and the choice between hatred and love choose love and you know and i believe that's been appropriate response to these races adds but i want to be clear that she's trying to say that this if you don't support israel then you're a savage but as we see right now happening in gaza it's totally false if you support israel you are supporting savagery and re are at a time and that really really appreciate you coming on the shelf you very much i was a little siad color found our existence and since. well for someone behind bars phone

calls home are virtually the only way to contact the outside world but those calls to friends and family are costing a pretty penny in state prisons this graph puts it into perspective a basic plan from cricket is four cents per minute for long distance calls or unlimited phone calls and texting for thirty five dollars a month the federal prison system costs twenty three cents per minute but here is where it gets outrageous a call in a georgia state prison be a private company global telling costs a dollar and thirteen cents a minute that's about seventeen dollars for a fifteen minute call so while it's families that incur the costs the phone companies and state prison systems are reaping the profit even federal prison systems which charge much less still makes money on the calls that the federal communications commission is taking notice of the exorbitant fees the f.c.c. announced it would seek public comment on prison phone rates so why are the rates

so high and can the f.c.c. change anything i'm joined now by dr joanna fernandez a professor filmmaker and activist from college. dr joe fernandez great to have you on so as we just saw if you want to make a call in a federal prison it costs much less a fraction of the cost than state prisons why is that. well part of the situation is that you have a predatory system in place that supported by state prison systems essentially these companies. they secure a contract through a bidding process whereby the company offers the state prison system a commission or profit sharing in the form of a percentage of revenue to the prison system so the prison system essentially is obtaining kickbacks from the companies and so this produces price

gouging because there is no limit and no cap on the prices that are placed on these calls because both the company and the prison system are benefiting from the exorbitant prices that you've outlined according to the center for constitutional rights in some states it costs six dollars an hour a minute to make a call and usually the calls to prisoners are no longer than fifteen minutes so that statistic you mentioned of seventeen dollars an hour is is in georgia but in a place like massachusetts for example the price is to thirty six. for a minute sorry i said an hour a minute and so there's a huge discrepancy from state to state and what we have here is that some

communities are incurring a kind of collective punishment or a regressive tax for the imprisonment of the individual and these communities are disproportionately poor and disproportionately african-american and latino so this is this is a huge injustice but it's also. civil rights issue now what it sounds like is that these states have no incentive to provide the lowest cost is that is that fair to say that's correct there is no incentive there is no competition in part because there is this monopoly system that is state supported meanwhile and just how much money how lucrative is is this prison telephone interest industry it's a million dollar industry there are three companies that control ninety percent of the market the largest being global tell link and the profits

that these companies are bringing in yearly are upwards of half a million dollars i think it's close to seven hundred. million dollars in profits and meanwhile family is i guess family is are oftentimes the people that are picking up these tabs and they really do not have a choice in terms of choosing a different provider and making their phone calls they have no choice right right well you know the people who are imprisoned are disproportionately poor economically disadvantaged and so are their families and the heartbreaking and the human aspect of this story is that oftentimes those who are not able to afford these exorbitant phone call prices are the children of prisoners who are kept from speaking to their parents because of these exorbitant

prices and an essentially for those prisoners who are not able to make a call to members of their family you have a situation in which their isolation from society increases exponentially and if they are to exit prison the light. clee hood of recidivism increases as a result of this isolation and there are plenty of studies that suggest that prisoners who keep in touch with their children and with their families are less likely to go back to prison so this is really. a profiteering system. that a racketeering system really only benefits the companies it doesn't and three companies that that it doesn't it does absolutely nothing for society and for

addressing the issue of crime and and and reforming. an individual in prison ok so we do see that the effects are very far reaching effects not only of the person that's locked up but their family and these children we don't have a lot of time left but i do want to ask you we know that the f.c.c. is looking into this what can they do about it well what they need to do is establish caps on. these prices the federal. example is is the perfect one phone calls at the federal level are approximately seven minutes seven cents a minute and and those work fine and the companies you know reap profits from that. established rate and that's what needs to happen at the state level across the country need to be set right we are out of time but a real.